the cause. go there and get her to 100,000. on your side. >> dana: do not follow greg gutfeld. that is it for "the five." thank you for watching. see you tomorrow. captioned by closed captioning services, inc >> bret: the administration's lightning rod for criticism over the libya attack holds a stormy face to face with her harsh critics. this is "special report." >> bret: good evening, i'm bret baier. susan rice depicted as everything from a thrown under the bus sacrificial lamb to willing political accomplish. today he is went head to head with the outspoken detractors on their home turf.

catherine herridge has reaction. >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get. >> the information given to the american people was wrong. >> i'm more disturbed now than i was before. >> ambassador susan rice initiated the capitol hill meeting with the three republican senators to explain why five days after the 9/11 attack on the benghazi consulate, rice characterized the commando style assault as spontaneous and wrongly blamed anti-islam video for death of four americans. the explanation that she relied on the best available intelligence fell short. >> i'm more convinced than ever it was bad, unjustified to give the scenario as presented by ambassador rice and president obama. >> beyond the controversial intelligence talking points the language including al-qaeda, senator said rice should have drilled down and asked more questions given her access to classified material that showed immediate and

compelling evidence of the terrorist involvement. >> when you have a position that the ambassador to the united nations, you go well beyond unclassified talking points in the daily preparation and responsibilities for that job. >> rice met with senator lieberman who asked whether rice was coached by the administration before her sunday show appearances. >> she said no, she was not given messaging points at all by the white house. >> in a written statement, rice who was joined by the acting c.i.a. director on the hill said, "we explain that the talking point provideed by the intelligence community and the initial assessment upon which they were based were incorrect in key respect." there was no protest or demonstration in benghazi. full week after the attack on david letterman, the president was still blaming the anti-islam video. >> extremists and terrorists use this as an excuse to attack a variety of the embassies, including the one, the consulate in libya.

>> the united nations on september 25, critics charge mr. obama double down. >> the united states government had nothing to do with the video. i believe its message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity. >> white house briefing spokesman jay carney was pushed for explanation. >> what your questions seems to suggest is that it is more important that i or others use talking point provideed by the intelligence community, than what happened in benghazi. >> a congressional memo by fox news said the al-qaeda affiliated terrorists were involved in benghazi and assault on embassies in yemen and tunisia. senior fellow suggested terrorist attacks on 9/11 were not isolated events but were potentially linked. >> bret: big deal. we will continue to follow it. thank you. congressional negotiations going nowhere fast, president obama is appealing to a

different constituency tonight in his bid to back away from the fiscal cliff. we have fox team coverage. chief washington correspondent james rosen is at the white house to tell us about the president's return to the campaign trail sort of. but we begin with the chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel and another reason that the talk reconciliation so important. good evening, mike. >> good evening. there are strong suggestions that the nation's debt problem may be worse than $16 trillion and counting and key lawmakers are saying it's time to slash spending. >> i can cut $600 billion more out of the federal government tomorrow. nobody would know a difference except for the people employed by the programs here in washington, d.c. >> when asked by fox what he would be willing to cut, the senate majority leader didn't offer anything new. >> remember, we have already done more than $1 billion worth of cuts. we have done that. so we need to get some credit for that. and the negotiations that take place. >> 42 business organizations sent this letter to top lawmakers urging congress not to increase taxes writing, "we

strongly urge congress to pursue comprehensive tax reform that lowers rates on all forms of business income while enacting significant entitlement reforms that put the federal budget on sustainable fiscal path." coburn says too much of the fiscal cliff debate focused on increasing taxes when cuts and reform are needed. >> we can take all the revenue and it wouldn't the problem. the real answer is as we have a demographic shift that is coming. to entitlement program that increased benefit without increasing the taxes to pay for entitlement programs. they are interrupt essentially. >> that is a key point made by two former congressman chris cox and bill averager in "wall street journal" editorial who wrote "the actual liabilities of the federal government including social security, medicare and federal employees future retirement benefit exceed $86 trillion." the second ranking senate

democrat is for addressing entitlements but not now. >> medicare and medicaid insure one-third of all americans. they represent about 20% of our budget. and they are a real challenge to us. because untouched unamended medicare will run out of money in 12 years. that is scary. >> though as the negotiations continue, durbin does suggest that obamacare is on the table. >> the only perfect law i know was carried down mountain on a stone tablet by senator moses. everyone else has define their very best to write a good law and realizes oaf time changes have to be made. i'm open to whatever, you know, elements we need to reconsider there. but i think we have the right starting point. >> much of the anxiety in washington seems to be over not knowing the details of the president and speaker boehner's negotiations. lawmakers on both sides suggest it could be a good thing. they are talking to each other and not leaking. >> mike emanuel live on the

hill. thank you. >> bret: he is not campaigning for re-election, but president obama is back on the political stump to round up support for his economic plan to get off the fiscal cliff. chief washington correspondent james rosen tells us that has the congressional republicans feeling left out. >> ultimately, the leader is the president of the united states. >> this president in leading the white house and senate democrats in negotiations with the house republicans over how the avoid the so-called fiscal cliff decided for now to forgo further talks with the top lawmakers. task now delegated to the treasury secretary geithner it go and others. instead, president obama is utahing this critical week to meet with the ceos from small and big business and middle class taxpayers before boarding air force one on friday for campaign style rally in the philadelphia area. >> rather than sitting down with lawmakers of both parties an working out an agreement, he is back on the campaign trail. we are not going to this problem creating villains and drumming up outrage. >> he will be out trying to

i'm sure zero in on those states that are represented by members of the house and the senate. to try to get public support. >> republicans quickly moved to set up their own photo ops with the small business leaders. the white house said g.o.p. complaints about the president's schedule was the time for talks dwindling was disparaging to ordinary americans. >> it seems like the talks broken down. am i wrong? >> i think you are wrong. it's not just a matter for discussion between the president and the senate minority leader. or other congressional leaders. >> only inside the beltway do people think that sitting in a room for photo spray will solve necessarily problems. the work has to be done. that work is being done. >> with that, we're going to get to work. >> after the president sit down with the four congressional leaders in roosevelt room this month, democrats seeking to project

confidence to consumers and markets alike laid out a timetable for the two sides to produce, at least the blue prohibit for bipartisan deal. timetable that now appears to have vanished. >> work on the thig recess. we'll meet with the friends and come back the first week. that is as i understand it. >> the white house called secretary geithner the lead player in ongoing talks with the house republicans adding he is to be joined by the top white house aides like jack lew and sperling. when asked if geithner showed up today at the house to negotiate, carney said he could not account for geithner it go precise whereabouts. bret? >> bret: james rosen live on the north lawn. thanks. none of that was encouraging to wall street today. the dow lost 89. the s&p 500 fell seven. the nasdaq dropped nine. one of the main talking points for both sides in the fiscal cliff negotiations but especially the republicans, making sure the u.s. does not become the next greece.

tonight, economically crippled country is getting another infusion of the bail-out money. senior foreign affairs correspondent amy kellogg has the story from london. >> they were peaceful but this was a protest. these greeks weary of seeing tensions shrink -- pensions shrink and jobs grow were not happy about the decision to grant them more in bail-out money. they know the feet will be held ever closer to the austerity fire. >> the long installment is not for the workers or the people. but the banks. for those drinking our blood. nothing can change. >> greece's new prime minister welcomed the deal to keep greece afloat, the feisty opposition leader decried it as hollow fix. >> it does not include greece or a plan for greece. >> in a marathon session in brussels, they nibbled around the essentials of the massive debt problem. making adjustments sort of forgiving greece's debt. that might have been political poison for the european

officials planning to stand for re-election. but moves such as deferring debt repayment, lowering the interest rate and buying back debt crafted to a package some call the greek fudge that may just be delaying more bitter medicine down the road. something that could be a preview of coming attractions in america. >> anybody that thinks there will be a fiscal cliff deal in the united states to dot all "i"s, cross all "t"s and magically we are precision issues like entitlement reform and revision of the tax code, of course are dreaming. >> this analyst says what is going on in europe right now is the main issue in the global economy. even overshadowing the fiscal cliff. the markets today did not get a huge boost from the greek deal because they expected that it would happen. but they would have take an real hit had it not. bret? >> bret: amy kellogg in london. thank you. black friday shoppers got plenty of bang for the buck. that is later in the

grapevine. up next, republicans try to zero in on hispanic voters. why is it that the most impressive technology often comes with a set of equally impressive instructions ? shouldn't something that's truly advanced,

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>> bret: republicans are already looking ahead to the next election. in 2014. they are trying to do something about the low numbers with hispanics. correspondent doug mckelway on the first steps this week. >> clearly aware of the changing demographics of the u.s., congressional republicans sent two signals today they are intent on wooing latino voters. >> we need a new tone about immigration, be more welcoming. >> in the house, labrador, puerto rican born republican, is resurrecting the so-called stem jobs bill. short for science, technology, engineering an math. it would end the green card lottery that selects 55,000 immigrants from country with low immigration rates and reallocate them to foreign born post graduate degree holders. >> this is important

legislation. american businesses, companies say they need the high skilled workers. and they are not finding enough. >> sponsors say the stem bill is appealing to the conservatives and the immigrants and allows beneficiaries to bring families to the u.s., and blocking the brain drain caused by the u.s. trained foreign born engineers returning home. >> the communities agree with us on a lot of the issues. the problem is that they don't even listen to us, because they think we don't welcome them in our party. nothing could be further from the truth. we want more people to join our party. >> the bill is expected to pass in the house, despite resistance from democrat wos object to replacing the green card lottery, which makes no exception for education. >> why do you have to eliminate 55,000 people from africa and eastern europe? aren't they just as valuable? aren't they just as worthy? the stem jobs bill will be debated on the house floor later this week. on the senate side, two retiring republicans, kyl and hutchison hired their own immigrant friendly bill,

achieve act. alternative to dream act. that grants a pathway for citizenship for imgrants seeking a college education and military experience but who turn down welfare. bret? >> bret: doug, thanks. home prices and consumer confidence are both up here in the u.s. but perhaps some of the most confident consumers about home prices are not from america. correspondent william la jeunesse explains from los angeles. >> realtors linda and brent cater to buyers in the wealthy los angeles suburb of san marino, where a recent influx of chinese helped stabilize the market. >> this is the formal dining room. >> this is the top 1% of managed speakers coming from china. there really is the people who have their own businesses or maybe were part of the government. >> non-americans bought $82 billion in u.s. homes last year. $7 billion from the chinese. who often paid cash for homes with special kitchens, in-law

sweets ansuites and ponds. >> people in china do business from their homes so they want the homes to scream they made it. and they are successful. >> in hard hit states many foreigners smell a bargain. latin americans in florida, mexicans in texas. while the chinese focus on california, and nowness. >> for the regular house in china it's over a couple million dollars. but, you know, here they can only buy for less than $1 billion chinese dollars. >> economically there is not a problem. it's something for the united states to watch politically. >> analysts who study the chinese say unlike the japanese who bought american landmarks in the '80s or columbian drug houses. >> they are not looking to make a splash or to change nerk their image. they are trying to just as i said, have a place to go if there is trouble. >> these are not the ordinary

chinese where the annual income is $5,000 a year. one of the billion chinese millionaires helping the family. and u.s. real estate recover from the process. bret? >> bret: william la jeunesse in los angeles. thank you. still ahead -- get ready to open your wallet again. we will tell you what you will be paying for like it or not. first, will egypt's new president pay the price for a power grab?

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>> bret: senate majority leader harry reid says long-time republican senator bob dole is in army reed medical center. he is 89 years old and has been hospitalized several times in recent years. the kansas senator ran for president in 1996. vice president in 1976.

the seasonal accused of the biggest security breach in u.s. history says he has been punished enough already. army private bradley manning is expected to testify this week in a pretrial hearing. his lawyers contend his isolation in the small cell where he was forced to sleep naked was illegal. they are seeking a dismissal of charges. manning is accused of sending classified war logs and diplomatic cable to website wikileaks. all sides seem to be digging in as the political turmoil in egypt continues. today another familiar sight in a familiar place not too long after the last president was forced from power there. correspondent steve harrigan is in cairo tonight. >> attempts by egypt president morsi to expand his powers have galvanized the oppositio opposition. in to the largest street protest since those that helped overthrow the former president hosni mubarak two years ago. >> the protesters are a mix. young and old.

secular and nationalists. joined for the moment by one emotion. anger. the egypt's first democratically elected president overstepped the bounds and trying to become exactly what they fought so hard to get rid of. a dictator. >> they are great control. appreciate the culture in their own image of muslim brothers. they are not hiding it. it's not that. they are doing it, secretly. >> mohammed morsi's attempt at compromise meeting with the chief judges in cairo, giving verbal assurances that the sweeping powers would only be temporary and limited to unspecified sovereign matters has done nothing to stem unrest. schools and many businesses were closed today due to demonstrations. planned march by muslim brotherhood in support of mohammed morsi was canceled to

reduce the chance of conflict between the two sides. >> opposition leaders say there will be no negotiations, no deals made with the president unless he backs down completely and withdraws his decree. otherwise, they say, they will stay out in the street. bret? >> bret: steve harrigan live early wednesday morning in cairo. thank you. palestinian authorities today opened the grave of former leader yasser arafat to take samples from his remains. arafat died in 2004. ostensibly from a stroke. but speculation he was poise -- speculation he was poisoned resurfaced this summer after elevated surface of radioactive substance were detected on his clothing. activists in syria say dozen of people were wounded when they bombed an to live press factory. rebel controlled town near the turkish border was also attacked from the air. the facility included refugee camp there. syrian rebels meantime reportedly shot down a

government helicopter today. >> bret: north carolina doesn't get the joke. if you did not shop on black friday, alert the media. we'll explain in the grapevin grapevine.

>> bret: now fresh pickings from the political grapevine. cnn reports every american went shopping over black friday weekend. really. almost every one of you. the headline on the website reads 247 million shoppers

visited stores and websites black friday weekend. "weekly standard" notes the numbers are suspicious taking away those too young to shop. so it would mean for the statistics to be believed shoppers would include 4.4 million people aged 75 to 79. 3 million age 80 to 84. 2 million that were 85 to 89. nearly 1 million between 90 and 94. 300,000 were 95 and older. the numbers include those who just visited websites. which suggests some folks were counted more than once. black friday news it appears there will be fire power under the christmas tree this year. gun buyer check hit an all-time record high friday. f.b.i. buyer background check requests for up 20% from last year's one-day record. demand reportedly was so overwhelming it caused outages at the f.b.i. background check center twice.

"time" magazine nominated an dra fluke as one of -- sandra fluke as one of the 40 cor th the enders -- contenders for person of the year. a list including president obama, mitt romney, hillary clinton, bill clinton, mohammed morsi and benjamin netanyahu. fluke's inclusion might come as a surprise as a news-maker. one might say she was dwarfed by the others. looking at the top 50 newspapers this year, senator fluke appeared in 1,059 articles. mitt romney in 71,000. president obama 59,000. bill clinton 11,000. the win her be announced december 14. finally, china communist newspape daily" has been hoodwinked. they ran a 55-page photo spread in tribute to kim jung un and named "onion sexiest

man alive." with his round face and boyish charm and the strong sturdy chin, this pyongyang bred heartthrob is every woman's dream come true. this is true. you may soon feel effect not of the earthquake in your wallet from new environmental regulations that, now that president obama has won re-election. fox news net wok senior correspondent -- network senior washington correspondent peter bans takes a look at what it could mean for you. >> top senate critic of the environmental protection agency charmed after delaying regulations to help president obama win re-election. the epa is about to flood the nation with new rules to cost consumer and jobs.

he said give me a chance to get re-elected. >> a report by the staff contends that the new gasoline rules from the epa could add up to 9 cents on the gallon. rules to clean up hydraulic fracking and oil and natural gas production could add $500,000 in costs annually to a well. expenses that could be passed on to consumer. tougher standards for boilers could destroy 800,000 jobs. this morning, consumer free market group the heartland institute presented inhof with 16,000 petitions. demanding "congress control this rogue agency." >> everything the epa does has a cost. we need to make sure that the costs are in line with the benefits. >> some environmentalists acknowledge higher cost and some regulations. but say the benefits outweigh them. for example with clean air

regulation on coal fired power plant. >> increase between 2-3% in electricity rate. 45,000 lives lost evidence year. $485 billion in economic cost from health problems. this administration said it seeks to balance the economic and environmental considerations in deciding on regulations. >> bret: six west coast senators want the justice department to see if the recent spike were result of false information. they want to know if the maintenance shutdown were accurate. gas prices soared to $4 a gallon out west in may and october. right now, the national average is $3.42 a gallon. do you think the companies deliberately drove up prices? let me know on twitter. a federal judge in washington says the major tobacco

companies must take out advertisement admitting they deceived the public about dangers and addictiveness of cigarettes. this attempts to finalize wording of the ads that were first ordered in 2006. it's taken six years to make it this far. 2006 is when the companies were found guilty of violating the federal republican tiering laws -- federal racketeering laws. federal appeals court refusing to rehear a measure that would allow schools to direct data on undocumented students. the court did not give a reason for the decision. one of the key figures in the benghazi terror attack investigation confronts her critics. we'll confront the fox all-stars when we come back.

bottom line, i am more concerned now than i was before that 16 september explanation about how four

americans died in benghazi, libya, by ambassador rice, i think does not do justice to the reality at the time. and in hindsight, clearly was completely wrong. >> there are no unanswered questions about ambassador rice's appearance on sunday shows. the talking points that she used for the appearances that were provided by the intelligence community. >> well, susan rice, the u.n. ambassador confronting major critics on capitol hill. she is in line for possible nomination to secretary of state position. she met with lindsey graham, john mccain, kelly ayotte who said we respectfully disagree with the white house statement that there are no unanswered question about ambassador rice's sunday appearance.

they talk about the acting director of the c.i.a. saying that the c.i.a., the f.b.i. removes the references to al-qaeda in the talking points. to ple vent compromising and ongoing criminal investigation. they say, the senators say at 4:00 this afternoon, the c.i.a. officials contacted us and indicated that the acting director morrell misspoke in the earlier meeting and the c.i.a. says it deleted the al-qaeda reference, not the f.b.i. and unable to give us a reason why. one thing also about the al-qaeda being taken out, it was not just the five sunday shows blaminth spontaneous demonstration there wasn't, never a demonstration. susan rice said this. >> president obama said running for president he'd row focus our effort on al-qaeda. we decimateed al-qaeda. usama bin laden is gone.

we decimateed al-qaeda. usama bin laden is dead. he said that al-qaeda was decimated in both interviews so that was a misleading impression to the american people about what happened at the consulate. that we what, didn't want to tip al-qaeda off? it's particularly that the american people not be left misleading impression, which is what happened here. >> bret: steve hayes for the "weekly standard." mara liasson of national public radio. sendcated columnist -- sindcated columnist charles krauthammer. >> that is rather damning that first, they pretend that the only thing change is the removal of the word al-qaeda. that is trying to be less specific. nobody buys the explanation we didn't want to warn al-qaeda we were after them.

now as you show this, she was stretching on the five shows that we decimateed al-qaeda. she knows that it's al-qaeda affiliated attack. al-qaeda on the run is campaign proposition. that she would have known at the time is not true. the statement issued by the three senators emphasizes that there are three scandals. before, during, after. where was the president and why wasn't there help? in the aftermath of this deception this is important to emphasize that. why are you obsessing over the talking point?

just today the acting c.i.a. director said at one point in the day, the f.b.i. removed the reference. six hours later it's not true. this is a new change of story. that is happening now, what? two months later. so this is very clear that what she said needs to explained and the irony is obama will keep it alive. if he nominates her. that will keep it alive. other the main stream media will walk away. now that the sex scandal is less interesting. >> bret: is a potential nomination in jeopardy and one senator seems to be saying i will hold out. >> we have to say unless graham and mccain get more converts she could get confirmed.

they have to keep enough republican osdeny her 60 votes. the white house still feels confident they could get her through if they nominate her. the other questions about -- >> bret: couldn't one senator object? >> put a hold? >> bret: hold. >> yes. they could do that. maybe they will. maybe they will until they get the answers they want. then i don't know how that works. that is just another kind of battle. if you talk votes he is has the votes. charles talks about before and during. those are the meetier questions that should be investigated. afterwards, the talking point changed and is kind of less of a scandal. >> bret: i bet you disagree. >> it's all part of a bigger scandal. can you imagine in they

exercised reference to al-qaeda if to make their case? there is in fact contrary to what jay carney says a number of questions. who wrote talking points? we don't know who wrote talking points. why did they write the talking point for political appointee? why were the al-qaeda references taken out? why did they deny they made changes? why did they first say they changed the talking points? later say it was somebody in his office. then today you have the acting director of the c.i.a. saying it was the f.b.i. then no, no, it was the c.i.a. now we have five plex nations how talking points were changed. carney can say there are no questions all he wants. there are dozens of questions. until the white house answers them, they will continue to get the questions. i understand the point that this is not as important as

the first questions that need to be answered but if you have these obvious contradictions, again and again as the white house tries to sell a story that is a problem. if you tell the truth from the beginning you don't make these mistakes. >> bret: there are some that say benghazi is not a story. it is a nonstory. cnn has a new poll out in handling bening attack. 40% satisfied 5. 4% dissatisfied. the statement from the administration attempt to mislead 40%. based on available information. 54%. not majority there. but 40%. >> we are talking about the murder of a u.s. ambassador first time in three decades. death of four americans on foreign soil unprotected and the sacking of a u.s. embassy.

after the bravado we will track them down and justice, not a word. one guy held in tunisia that it took letter of a senator to get u.s. access because the administration wasn't interested enough to ask anybody on its own. the fourth scand is the media are not interested. i understand before the election because they didn't want to do something to hurt obama re-election. his eselection over. no interest. sex scandal looked salacious. now that has faded away the one way to be kept alive is the season rice nomination. >> bret: is she nominated? >> probably yes. but the real interest in that is not who gets nominated or appointed but it will highlight the scandal otherwisic noreed. >> bret: yes or no? >> i think she gets nominated.

>> sounds like he wants to do it. >> next up, the president goes on the road to talk about the fiscal cliff. we use this board to compare car insurance rates side by side so you get the same coverage, often for less. that's one smart board. what else does it do, reverse gravity? [ laughs ] [ laughs ] [ whooshing ] tell me about it. why am i not going anywhere? you don't believe hard enough. a smarter way to shop around. now that's progressive. call or click today. [ grunting ]

let me suggest if the president wants a solution to challenges at the moment the people he needs to talk to are the members of his own party so he can convince them of the need to act. >> we are all here. those of us in the administration and those who have been elected to congress to serve the american people. to suggest that we should now that the election is over stop talking to them about these vital issues i think is bad advice. >> jay carney at the white

house getting a number of questions about the president's planned trip to philadelphia to have a campaign style rally abhis plan to back off the fiscal cliff. back with the panel. mara, are these negotiations happening? i mean, are they -- >> i think they are happening. i think that to make a big fuss about the president going on the road or not. i mean, the democrats didn't like it when ronald reagan made his case to the public either. i think these negotiations are happening. they're happening at the staff level. apparently he called and he talked to john boehner on the phone. they had a deal almost. once before. i think the outlines of it will be revived and they have to figure out how to structure it. some down payment by the end of the year. some instructions to the tax write-in committee about how much money you will get out of revenue, entitlement and spending. then they can go forward. it really do think that the basic structure of this has not been blown up. >> bret: steve? >> yeah. i mean, i don't have a problem with the president making his case in philadelphia. that is fine.

he is the president and he is entitled to do that. i have a problem on the emphasis on taxes and re-knews. that is all we have had a discussion of at this point. the way to solve our long-term debt issues as everybody in this entire town knows is by reforming entitlements. there has been so little discussion of reforming entitlement to this point, very little of it in public. back when they had negotiations the first time, the president wouldn't put anything out on paper. now you're having calls from senior democrats in both the house and the senate saying basically entitlements are off the table. we are not doing entitlement. the president at some point, serious about a deal needs to set aside his campaigning on tax issues. and get serious about entitlement issue. >> one prominent democrat did talk about entitlement issues back in 2010. pretty extensively. >> the major driver of our long-term liabilities, everybody here knows, is medicare and medicaid and the healthcare sending.

nothing comes close. social security we could probably fix the same way tip o'neil and ronald reagan sat down together and they could figure something out. that is manageable. medicare and medicaid, massive problem down the road. that is where -- that is what our children have to worry about. >> when president obama was first elected he talk about the way it would bring down deficit. the campaign promise is to cut the deficit in half. he said he would do it by focusing at the center of his proposal, going to be entitlement reform. we have seen none of that. more than four years. >> bret: interesting op-ed by bill archer and chris cox in "wall street journal" saying that the real outlay is $86 trillion of unfunded liabilities. obligations when you include all of the federal government, what it owes. that is obviously dwarfs the $16 trillion in debt we hold. >> which raises the question

why are republicans allowing the entire debate to be about taxes? and about the war among republicans over holding the line on the norquist pledge or not. when what obama is proposing on raising the rates on the 2% is a triviality. it will reduce the deficit from $11.01 trillion to $1. $1.02 trillion. eight cents on the dollar. nothing. lunch money. it's rounding error. yet that is all the debate we are hearing. obama understands this. he is trying to, he is not trying to fix our fiscal issues and problems. he's trying to destroy the republicans. by insisting that there is a split among republicans on this issue, which has held them together. the same way it destroyed president bush senior when he went back on the pledge he made. this is a political attack on republicans. there is no evidence right now that he has any interest from

the real fiscal issue because he would have to talk about the spending and entitlements and he isn't. >> he will. he was willing to raise medicare retirement age to 67 when he talked to john boehner, he was willing to change formula on social security. those things will come back and be part of a final deal. they have to be. >> if he is so willing why did he never say it in pubic? >> bret: we will probably have more panels on the fiscal cliff i'm guessing. that is it for this panel. stay tune to see original reporting on yesterday's big headline. - what starts with adding a friend... ♪ ...could end with adding a close friend. the lexus december to remember sales event is on. this is the pursuit of perfection. till you finish your vegetables. [ clock ticking ] [ male announcer ] there's a better way... v8 v-fusion. vegetable nutrition they need, fruit taste they love. could've had a v8. or...try kids boxes!

>> finally tonight, this year's cyber monday led to some not so unique newscasts. >> local news outlets across the country have been reporting on this big day and each station has their own unique spin. pretty cool. >> it's cyber monday, a day on the retail calendar that can be enjoyed from a desk or the couch. >> enjoyed from a desk or couch? , enjoyed from a desk or the couch. >> enjoyed from a desk or the couch. >> enjoyed from a desk or the couch. >> enjoyed from the desk or